Army Dreamers
by mattressdemon
Summary: It was to join his brother. Things changed, though. And through it all, Luffy's enthusiasm and happiness was never at stake. Shonen ai, ZoLu, slight SanUso, one shot.


Want to hear the music? http // youtube . com/ watch?vtWdHOm256N4

Take out the spaces. If the link stops showing, just go to youtube and search "Army Dreamers". It's by Kate Bush, and it's on her album The Whole Story.

* * *

**Army Dreamers**

_B.F.P.O._

Army dreamers.  
Mommy's hero.

Going away to the war was tough. It was not something any of them had expected to happen, if all of them even knew about it. As far as Luffy knew, all of them could be off somewhere and never even heard about it. It's not like he talked about it. Since Usopp and Zoro knew, though, he assumed someone must have heard about it. It wasn't like he was a crewmember, though.

Our little army boy  
Is coming home from B.F.P.O.

Luffy, being Luffy, got tired of waiting and wanted in on the action. So he joined the war, too. He was only in the base for a year before the fiery he'd gone after went home. He had to admit; working with him had been fun. He hadn't spent time like that with the man in forever.

_I've a bunch of purple flowers  
To decorate a mommy's hero._

He came home, and it was sort of a surprise. For Usopp, mostly. Sanji and Zoro, not so much. The five had roomed together prior, so it was, indeed, home. Usopp built it himself.

_Mourning in the aerodrome,  
The weather warmer, he is colder._

For a while, the three lived awkwardly together. Time passed, it became normal. It became a tendency for Sanji to make only four cups of coffee in the morning. Not that Luffy was big on coffee, but he'd always insist on drinking it since it was grown up sugar.

_Four men in uniform  
To carry home my little soldier._

Luffy was gone for a year. Meals were held in silence for that whole first year. What the Hell were they supposed to say without their support beam of vomiting sunshine to tell them that their dream is just around the corner, and they're just scared of the puddle and to leave their umbrella behind?

_'What could he do?  
Should have been a rock star.'  
But he didn't have the money for a guitar._

No one in the household really realized how much they missed Luffy until, once, Sanji accidentally made a fifth cup of coffee. While everyone sat around that small dining table in the kitchen, sipping at their coffee in silence, perhaps a sort of mourning for their lack of Luffy, they couldn't stop thinking about the lone cup of coffee on the table, before Luffy's untouched seat.

_'What could he do?  
Should have been a politician.'  
But he never had a proper education._

Once, they got a envelope in the mail from Luffy. In it were four separate letters; one for each of them. There's was even four more that Zoro promised himself he'd deliver for Luffy. No one was nervous as Zoro had opened the envelope, and everyone read his letter in a melancholy silence.

_Should have been a father.'  
But he never even made it to his twenties.  
What a waste –_

They were simple words of inspiration. That was all. That was it. Zoro left in silence, hand on his katana, Sanji went to his kitchen, lighting a cigarette, and Usopp gathered up some paints.

_Army dreamers.  
Ooh, what a waste of  
Army dreamers.  
_

Thanksgiving came and passed, and then Luffy's favorite holiday, Halloween, passed. For Thanksgiving, there was a plate of food at Luffy's seat. Everyone would, at times, place a bit of their food on there. It was twisted, but it showed their desperation unlike their faces could.

_Tears o'er a tin box.  
Oh, Jesus Christ, he wasn't to know,  
_

On Halloween they dressed up a scarecrow in a dress. Zoro left earlier than normal. Someone at the small gathering rumored that they heard sobs from Zoro's room. No one believed the rumor. Ace found that he never once stopped watching over that stupid scarecrow.

_Like a chicken with a fox,  
He couldn't win the war with ego._

Winter began to snow on them, and on the day before Christmas, the mailman left a box with a letter on it on the front door. Zoro was the first to wake, and the first to see it. He trudged through the thick snow, and grasped it up, hauling it back to the house on his shoulder. Setting it down, he waited for everyone else to wake up.

_Give the kid the pick of pips,  
And give him all your stripes and ribbons._

Sanji came down promptly at eight A.M., and went to making breakfast. Usopp and Ace were the next two to come down, and they ate breakfast in silence, all feeling knots in their stomachs over what may be in the box.

_Now he's sitting in his hole,  
He might as well have buttons and bows._

Everyone was silent when Zoro read out the letter in a dismal way. It clearly stated, signed by the captain, that he was sorry for Luffy's death on the battlefield. Zoro neatly folded up the letter, and set it aside. Inside the box, in one side, was all of Luffy's belongings. On the other, lay a letter, and wrapped boxes. As Zoro, again, read the letter in that gloomy way, everyone picked up the gift that Luffy said was theirs in the letter.

_No harm heroes.  
Mommy's hero.  
B.F.P.O._

_Army dreamers._

_

* * *

_

B.F.P.O - British Forces Posted Overseas.


End file.
